Yemen will boycott the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Doha in November if Israel takes part as planned, an official Yemeni newspaper said Thursday, July 19. "Yemen will boycott the WTO ministerial conference in Qatar ... if Israel takes part," said the weekly 26 September, organ of the Yemeni army and close to the government.

"It is rather difficult to take part in such a conference under such circumstances, especially while Israel wages a vile Zionist aggression and genocide against the Palestinian people," it said.

The head of Qatar's organizing committee for the November 9-13 conference, Sheikh Hamad Bin Faisal Al-Thani, confirmed last week that Israel will take part in the Doha meeting.

A month after the Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out last September, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for armed struggle against the Jewish state and for Arab states to ship arms to the Palestinians.

The Arab League, meanwhile, has called for a break in political contacts with Israel until it halts "aggression" against the Palestinians. ― (AFP, Sanaa)